Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Can You Hunt a Small Property?

Here's a question for all you bow and rifle hunters out there. I own a piece of land just 45 minutes outside of Houston, the last house at the end of a county road. It's 14 acres, 80% Wooded with varying elevations. Very secluded. The place is surrounded by thousands of acres of pasture and timberland. I'm not a hunter but I've seen deer, hogs and coyotes. I'm considering leasing out the property for deer season. Comes with a 1600 sq ft nice house that sleeps 8. The question is, is this property big enough for hunting?

Hmmm maybe for yourself or a family member, but for leasing out I would ck it out more due to closeness to other property. Make sure your rear end is covered

I agree with Pat. Besides the huge liability possibilities, you definitely don't want to end up feuding with any of your neighbors over a hunting issue. Country folks don't look kindly to absentee land owners, or worst yet, strangers hunting on or nearby their homesteads. I know... cause I is one of those country folks.

Perhaps visiting with your neighbors will quickly give you the answer to your question.

+1
I are too one of them folks.

I agree with the other posters. The property might support a single hunter. If you own the property, that means a lot. If you lease it out and it is over hunted, neighbors will likely take offense.

Single hunter, or father and young son. Shotgun only. Nothing larger than buckshot.

Here in WV, VA and NC, we have restrictions on how close we can shoot to a dwelling and a road. It changes by locality, mostly by county and town lines, but they too are pretty specific per area. You need to check your local hunting regulations or call the local game warden's office.

Ken

My first thought would be how much is the liability insurance cost to cover your arse if there was a hunting accident? I bet the insurance would be higher than your lease payment.

I have 12 acres and have deer on it. I could put a stand up next to my pond and hunt it. As a matter of fact here is one of the deer I had there last year, but to lease it no way to small unless your going to lease it to one or 2 folks and that's it period, but like TGW1 said the cost to cover yourself or to get a Lawyer to write up a contract so your not responsible for anything that happens would be a pain and expensive. We pay 4 grand a year for the land we lease down here but it's through a big logging company and we have like a 25 page contract we have to sight every 3 years. It's not as easy as you would think.

Here are 2 of the deer I had on my 12 acres last year.

In Texas I think you are allowed to hunt a property if its 10 acres or greater.

With that said.......what little money you might be able to get for such a small property would not make it worth getting the state permits to lease, insurance, wear and tear on the house, utilities, hassle with the neighbors etc.

10 acres is amount of land you are reqiured to have to discharge a firearm within a housing addition that doesn't fall under a city ordinance.

Outside of that, any size parcel of land is legal to hunt on, but the projectile cannot leave the property.

Still 14 acres isn't really enough for more than 1 and even then the neighbors may get upset if you shoot more than 1 or 2 max. BUT it is your right to.

Well here is the other problem with that.... Unless you get that shot right that deer could very well end up on someone else's property and now you got to deal with that as well. It can get ugly quick!! Even if your stand was in the center of the 14 acres a bad shot and that deer is gone, gone....

RC

Small tracts should be limited to only one deer. Period. Not one per person, one per season.you get some yo yo that kills his limit then brings his whole family and friends to fill their tags. Result- no more deer or poor quality. Problem is that it's legal to do just that

Pat, I would not worry about some killing their limit on their small acreage. It is much more likely an E Texas night hunter will take more than his or her fair share of does and trophy's. E. Texas, and in fact, all over Texas, the night poachers are out there killing a lot of deer.

Unfortunately, some hunters that do not have a long-term stake in a property treat it like a public restroom. I have been taking 6-8 deer off my place (legally) for the last few years to get the doe numbers in line with the buck numbers due to legal hunting that is not in line with my goals (although these folks claim the same goals as me). Fortunately, my habitat restoration now holds a lot of deer despite what the "experts" claim on deer movement, so I have been able to also target a trophy buck each year. One of my neighbors only lets a single hunter hunt his farm at my suggestion after a conflict with another of my neighbors (now moved away). This fellow walks the talk on herd improvement. I am always glad to see when he harvests a nice buck. When someone claims to be a meat hunter, I ask them whether they slaughter calves or wait until they reach adulthood. Mature deer are fine for eating if handled properly.

I've had bad experiences with the game wardens not doing their jobs. Handed illegally killed deer hunter to them and they did nothing even when they had the evidence handed to them. I have seen how taking to many deer from a small acreage can mess up the whole area for years . In our area you can't take does except with a bow. So everyone takes bucks putting major pressure on them and your trophy buck winds up being a spike or fork horn....

Yeah for this very reason Arkansas implemented the 3 point rule back in 93 or so. No adult can take a buck unless it has at least 3 points on one side. This at least helps the spikes and forks grow up some.... some folks will just shoot anything.. The nice thing about the rule is if your under 16 (youth) your first deer can be any kind of buck. After that first one though you have got to follow the rules like everyone else.

It's taking a long time but I think this rule is actually starting to help some. My last couple bucks were a nice 8 and a 10. And my 20 year old finally got him a nice 9 point. It's worth the wait!!1

RC

On that size parcel the deer that are seen will be moving in and out of the neighboring properties too. It's too small to hold deer for a long period of time.

Here in Indiana a person can only take one buck per year no matter what weapon was used, unless they are hunting in a deer reduction zone, then they can take a buck in that zone too, but first they have to shoot a doe.

Does here are managed on a county by county basis.

Texas implemented a13" inside minimum on one of two allowed bucks. That has allowed the bucks to get a little older. Just this year they allow the taking of two does with a gun over the Thanksgiving weekend

Yeah Arkansas has some crazy deer harvest rules... The zone I hunt in you can take 6 deer but only 2 can be bucks. It's been that way for a long time in what we call Zone 12 which is about half the bottom of the state. I guess we have a LOT of deer...lol Up North it's only 4 deer but 2 bucks still.

If your in the right spot you can get some decent deer meat for the whole year!! One year I had the privilege of shooting 5 deer out of 6. I kept 4 of them and my freezer was plum full!! I gave the 5th one to feed the hungry program which was cool cause I got the fun of shooting it and all and they basically just took it off my hands after I signed it to them and I got to help a family or 2 eat.

RC

We also give deer meat to needy families. It is amazing how many folks struggle to put food on the table.

We have an abundance of wild pigs that many are edible. Yet it's hard to find folks to take the meat

Sounds like your neighbors are well fed!

Not as crazy as Indiana.

Bonus antlerless deer bag limits are set on a county by county basis. Keep that in the back of your mind....

Archery season: 2 does or one buck and one doe
Firearms season: One antlered deer if one was not shot in archery season plus 4 bonus antlerless deer
Muzzleloader season: One antlered deer if one was not shot earlier and one antlerless deer, plus any bonus antlerless deer that weren’t shot during firearms season
Special bonus antlerless season: Whatever bonus antlerless deer that you have not shot already.

So, in this county I can legally shoot 7 does and one buck.
If I go to a different county I can legally shoot as many bonus antlerless deer that is allowed in that county. So theoretically I could legally shoot another 344 antlerless deer in this state in addition to what I can legally shoot in my county.

RAH is correct, there are a lot of families struggling to put food on the table. A meat hunter, a real, honest-to-goodness meat hunter, will absolutely kill a young deer. Or a doe, or a buck. Distance of spread or number of points means little to a meat hunter. Neither does time of year, or time of day, or type of weapon used.

Bloodlines, trophy potential, number of deer taken, all irrelevant. What matters to a real meat hunter, is making sure there's something to eat come suppertime. Make no mistake, these people, and these situations absolutely still exist. At least they do in my area, and even my extended family.

If I catch a real meat hunter in my woods, standing over a felled deer in April, I'm gonna' ask that they notify me in advance before next time. Then I'm going to help them drag it out. It's thankfully been a long, long time, but I can still remember going to sleep hungry a few times as a kid. If your family is hungry, truly hungry, you kill that deer.